Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T01:38:39.456Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2.1 - The Bible and Early Christian Platonism

from II - History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2021

By
Mark Edwards
Edited by
Alexander J. B. Hampton  and
John Peter Kenney
Alexander J. B. Hampton
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
John Peter Kenney
Affiliation:
Saint Michael's College, Vermont
Get access

Summary

Early Christians were certainly inclined to look upon Plato as an ally. The first part of this chapter considers how far Eusebius and other apologists succeeded in making out the case that the Bible and Plato proclaim the same God. In the second part it proposes that the Johannine concept of the Logos was at once more foreign to Plato and more palatable to certain of his followers than Augustine supposed it to be. It concludes by examining two indictments of the hermeneutic method of the Fathers – first, that they co-opted the Platonic device of allegoresis to overwrite the plain sense of the scriptures, and secondly that under Platonic influence they surrendered faith to philosophy in their mystical readings of the Song of Songs.

Keywords

anthropomorphismLogoscreatorallegory
Type
Chapter
Information
Christian Platonism
A History
 , pp. 143 - 161
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barr, J. Biblical Words for Time. Chicago: Allenson, 1962.Google Scholar
Cudworth, R. True Intellectual System of the Universe. Edited by Birch, T.. London: Priestly, 1820.Google Scholar
Dillon, J. M. The Middle Platonists. London: Duckworth, 1977.Google Scholar
Edwards, M. J. ‘Nicene Theology and the Second God’. Studia Patristica 40 (2006): 191–5.Google Scholar
Edwards, M. J.Origen against Plato. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2002.Google Scholar
Edwards, M. J.‘Socrates and the Early Church’. In Socrates from Antiquity to the Enlightenment, ed. Trapp, M., 127–42. London: Routledge, 2007.Google Scholar
Edwards, M. J.‘Why did Constantine Label Arius a Porphyrian?’ L’Antiquité Classique 82 (2013): 239–47.Google Scholar
Gavrilyuk, P. The Suffering of the Impassible God. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Gunton, C. The One, the Three and the Many. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hengel, M. Jews, Greeks and Barbarians. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. 1980.Google Scholar
Leone Ebreo, , The Philosophy of Love. Translated by F. Friedeberg-Seeley and J. H. Barnes. London: Soncino, 1937.Google Scholar
Masterson, M. ‘Authoritative Obscenity in Iamblichus and Arnobius’. Journal of Early Christian Studies 22 (2014): 373–98.Google Scholar
Miles, G. ‘Stones, Wood and Woven Papyrus: Porphyry’s On Statues’. Journal of Hellenic Studies 135 (2015), 78–94.Google Scholar
Moreschini, C. Apuleius and the Metamorphoses of Platonism. Turnhout: Brepols, 2014.Google Scholar
Most, G. W. ‘Allegoresis and Etymology’. In Canonical Texts and Scholarly Practices, ed. Grafton, A. and Most, G. W., 52–74. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Nygren, A. Agape and Eros. Translated by P. S. Watson. London: SPCK, 1953.Google Scholar
O’Brien, S. C. The Demiurge in Ancient Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.Google Scholar
Riedweg, C. Mysterienterminologie bei Platon, Philon und Klemens. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1987.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutherford, R. The Art of Plato. London: Duckworth, 1995.Google Scholar
Stewart, J. A. The Myths of Plato. London: Macmillan, 1905.Google Scholar
Temple, W. Readings in St John’s Gospel. London: Macmillan, 1947.Google Scholar
Tzamalikos, P. Origen: Philosophy of History and Eschatology. Leiden: Brill, 2007.Google Scholar
Williams, R. D. Christ the Heart of Creation. London: Bloomsbury 2018.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×